Artistic beliefs
by Batman Addixon
Summary: A steampunk pre-teen, Terra, has a terrible history. Her father's in jail, she has 5 siblings, but everything starts to look up when she's finally able to express herself in her talent at her new school. When she meets the group, she's immediately thought of as a friend. Bullies and bystanders start to get in the way, will she break free, or will her secrets be revealed?
1. Chapter 1

"Fletcher, do you really think this girl is going to be an artist? We already have one." The dark skinned girl retorted as her friends were coming up with ideas of what the new girl was to look like.

Just as the young male was about to say something, he looked to the door, which was opening, and a female walked in casually. "Mom, I'm fine. Yes, I called dad earlier. No, he's doing fine. They let him outside today." She was talking on an electronic that was held to her ear.

"Ok, bye mom. Love you too." She hung up, pocketing the phone.

Glancing around, her eyes took in the room. It was pretty cool, the way everything was arranged. It looked like a hang-out, rather than a class room. There were three people doing what she assumed was school work, and talking. "Hello?" She questioned the three.

"Hi, I'm China!" One of the girls popped up, hand held out.

"My name is Terra." She smiled, shaking China's hand.

"This is Fletcher and Olive." China pointed to her companions, who'd both jumped up as well.

"Hi, would you be able to direct me to the office?" Terra asked, looking at them with big, hopeful green eyes.

"Yeah, I was about to go by there, follow me." Olive smiled, picking up her things and neatly folding them into her bag.

"Thanks." Said Terra, following closely behind her.

They walked to the office in complete silence, neither girl knowing what would be appropriate to say. Finally, they reached the office, and immediately Terra smiled at the principle inside.

"Hello, ma'am, I'm here for my schedule." She greeted the old woman.

"Yes, I was aware. Your mother called not too long ago." She sneered, snatching a piece of paper up from the desk beside her and handing it to the smaller female. "You have the same classes as Olive, China and Fletcher. I'm sure they'll show you around."

Olive nodded in fear and scurried out, dragging Terra with her. "What's wrong? Isn't your principle really nice?" Terra was confused; her last principle had been cruel, and always slapped her and her classmates with anything at hand.

Olive began laughing. It was a silly thought, really. Skidmore was evil; pure evil.

"You're kidding, right?" Olive exclaimed, "Skidmore's like a comic book villain!"

Terra snorted. If that was what they thought was bad, they should have gone to Miss Leary's School for Troubled Kids. "Really, that's your idea of a terrible principle?"

Olive nodded as she reached the door of her homeroom class. "Come on, homeroom's about to start."

Thus, began the day.


	2. Chapter 2 Halloween's come early

A/N; I know it's been a while but my wifi has been an incompetent fool lately and didn't cooperate so I'm only just now fixing this problem. Anyways, this is the real chapter 2 of Artistic Beliefs. Enjoy!

Terra stifled a groan as her mom kissed her cheek. "Have a nice day at school, dear! Remember to pick up your siblings after school, they'll be waiting across the street. I've talked to your principle and she's perfectly fine with you keeping them in the ANT farm while you're waiting for me."

The steampunk teen stared at her mom, "You said dad was supposed to. He's getting out today, isn't he?"

The older woman shook her head, "No, he's only ever allowed to see you. He's also staying in due to bad behavior."

"You're kidding?"

"I'm sorry, honey, I know you were excited to see him again." Jeanine gave her daughter a sympathetic look.

"It's fine mom, I'll call you when I pick up the kids. I'm going to be late." Terra hopped out of the van, rushing into school, her dress billowing in the wind. Her high heels had cogs on it, and she wore her hair in curls, with goggles placed on top.

"Look at what we have here! Isn't it a little early for Halloween?" A male's voice boomed through the halls. Terra quivered her lip, but remained strong other than that. She hadn't been able to express herself the past few years, so she wasn't going to stop now, just because somebody doesn't like it.

She held her head high as she moved her lock around. She opened her locker and stuffed her coat and bag in it, grabbing her binders. She slammed it shut; confidently walking to class until the senior football players stepped in her way. "Move, please." She demanded softly.

"No, we're good." They smirked.

"Oh, come on, just because you don't go, doesn't mean I can't." She retorted, jutting her hip out to place her hand on it.

The boys began to pick at her wardrobe. "What's this, goggles? I'm sure you're not blind."

"Surely, you don't need these gloves, your hands look fine."

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." The young teen suddenly became dark and powerful, her dark make-up helping the illusion.

She held out her hand, with her palm up, and a spark ignited from it. The boys got scared when her entire hand was covered in flames. "Good bye." She said as they ran away, screaming in terror. She put the fire out by simply blowing on her hand with a gentle whistle.

"Where were you?" Chyna hissed under her breath, "We were worried about you."

"Don't worry; I just had to take care of some stuff. I have things to do, other than just school." Terra responded.

Olive sighed, "We thought you'd stayed home sick."

"Yeah," Fletcher piped in, "I thought you moved to Mexico and changed your name to Rodriguez."

A giggle from Terra's mouth was close to blowing their cover. Their science teacher gave them the stink-eye, but remained in his chair, going back to grading some papers. "Do you want to hang out after school today; my mom said I could have some friends over." Chyna whispered while writing down some answers.

"Can't, I'm busy." Terra shook her head, jotting something down on paper.

"Please, we really want to hang out with you." Olive was close to begging.

"Fine, meet me at the ANT farm, five minutes after school." Terra huffed, marking her pencil across the paper yet again.

The group were confused, but nodded or made a noise in response.

Chyna pondered about her new friend, Terra, as she sat on the main couch in the ANT farm with Olive, Fletcher, and Angus. She was a mysterious character. She guessed time would tell who Terra was.

The click of high heels sounded through the halls, and the group became anxious upon waiting for Terra to arrive. It'd been twenty minutes by now, and they were getting rather upset.

Just as Fletcher was about to exit the room, the female of the hour showed up, surprising him completely. Caught off guard, he fell, pulling her down with him. Their lips met through the fall, and when they landed, they were kissing. "That lucky little-"Angus was cut off by a glare from Olive.

Terra's eyes widened, and so did Fletcher's. They both pulled away, embarrassed. "S-sorry." Fletcher apologized immediately.

"It's okay." Terra muttered, standing up while dusting herself off.

Fletcher remained on the floor until Chyna pulled him up, he'd been slightly distracted by his thoughts, which were a confused mess. He had this pull at his heart when his mouth was attached to hers, even for that brief moment. Although he knew everybody thought he was an idiot, he had to come up with a plan to kiss her again. He would never get enough of her lips against his.

"Ok, so what I wanted to show you guys, you have to promise not to tell anyone. This is like FBI level of secrecy, okay?" Terra stated, fixing her leather gloves.

They all nodded as she pulled the straps off. Her hands were covered in markings, swirls and lines all over. She held out her palms, and a spark ignited, all of her fingers owning their own little fire. The blaze increased, and she put her hands together and cupped the heat. It formed a small ball, and she tossed it to the air, where she blew on it, and it exploded into nothing.

Olive was cautiously peering around for anything that could prove it was a hoax, Chyna was staring in amazement, and the boys were gaping in shock. The sorceress smiled sheepishly, putting her gloves back on.

She was scared; nobody had ever seen that, except her mother and siblings. Not even her father knew of her insanity from another realm. He'd never believed in magic, or sorcery, and when he'd met her mother, she'd taught him wrong.

He didn't like that his wife was a witch, so he burned her, cut her up, tortured her in ways unknown, but she still lived. The only way to kill someone like her was to chain them up and throw them in a volcano. When she gave birth to Terra, the powers had been given to her, so she no longer had her immortal beauty. She'd turned from a graceful twenty year old, to a wrinkly forty year old, yet a bit of make-up helped that situation.

Terra now contained her mother's magic, and when she'd have a kid, the powers would be handed down to them. It only happens for a first-born, though. That, of course, explains why only Terra received such a responsibility. Her sisters and brothers never got quite the ability.

She knew her secret was going to be let out sometime; she was regretting her actions already.

Chyna smiled brightly, "That was awesome!"

"Thanks." Terra stuttered, looking down to the floor.

Olive spoke up, "That was real? No special effects?"

Terra nodded, looking up at everyone from under her hair. The group started conversing about the gothic girl's talent. "That's why your file says your talent is magic." Angus said.

"Wait," Terra paused, "You read my file?"

She began panicking, wondering how much he'd gone through. Had he read about her family's situation? Did he know that her dad was in jail? "H-how much do you know?" She asked nervously.

"Oh, not much. Your birthday, a couple of your favorite things, how many siblings you have. Nothing else." He assured her.

She took a deep breath and focused on him. Angus felt a small swirling in the back of his mind, as if someone were pulling thoughts from his brain. Terra's eyes glowed a purple hue as her sorcery removed all memory of reading her file. "Liar." She muttered, throwing the memory away.

Olive, Fletcher and Chyna stood in horror, gaping at the sight in front of them. It appeared to them that Terra was ripping some life away, but she wasn't. When she finished, Angus smiled, "What were we talking about?"

At that moment, the group, although Angus was oblivious, knew they were in for the ride of their lives.


End file.
